On 6 November, the European Commission published its yearly report on the State of the Energy Union Report, a key assessment of Members' progress in meeting climate and enerrgy goals, the Coalition for Energy Savings reports. For energy efficiency, the EU report reconfirms the positive reduction of primary energy and final energy consumption between 2022 and 2023, which decreased by 4.1% and 3% respectively, and indicates that the largest reduction was achieved in the residential sector (6.1% reduction), closely followed by the industrial sector (5.4%). The report also underlines the importance of the June Energy Efficiency roadmap as a way to fill the current planning gap to the EU 2030 energy efficiency target. In addition, the accompanying Staff Working Document, which summarises the content of the National Energy and Climate Plans Progress Reports, provides valuable insight on the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive in the years 2021-2023, namely on the renovation of public buildings and the Energy Savings Obligation. The EU report is available here.
Joëlle Gergis from the Universitiy of Melbourne and a lead author on the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on the Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report, argues in an article on the Guardian website that the concept of "net zero" has become a distracting loophole that allows continued fossil fuel use rather than confronting the core issue: the elimination of fossil-fuel extraction and use. She concludes that unless political leaders act immediately with courage to fundamentally end the fossil-fuel era (for example by pricing carbon and phasing out production), we face a major moral and physical failure for generations.
As we know all too well, COP30 starts this week. Brazil, the host of the summit, wants to show the world ithat it is a leader in safeguarding the planet. The New York Times reports that, on his watch, the president of Brazil "has succeeded in dramatically reducing deforestation in the Amazon, which plays a crucial role in absorbing the greenhouse gases warming the planet. But Brazil has also angered climate advocates by trying to loosen environmental laws and allowing, just weeks before the summit, oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River for the first time. . . . Mr. Lula [President of Brazil} has defended the decision to drill near the Amazon, arguing that oil revenues will help Brazil finance its transition to cleaner forms of energy. But the controversy threatens to tarnish Brazil's image abroad and weaken its clout in the climate negotiations, known this year as COP30, at a pivotal moment, as nations prepare to debate moving away from fossil fuels to limit rising global temperatures." Check out one of this week's EiD posts where fossil fuel leaders herald the 'energy addition' era: 'Music to my ears.' EiD thinks they are off key! This is going to be quite a challenging two weeks.
The Economist provides a wake-up call on the scale of the clean energy transition in China. "The scale of the renewables revolution in China is almost too vast for the human mind to grasp. By the end of last year, the country had installed 887 gigawatts of solar-power capacity -- close to double Europe's and America's combined total. The 22m tonnes of steel used to build new wind turbines and solar panels in 2024 would have been enough to build a Golden Gate Bridge on every working day of every week that year. China generated 1,826 terawatt-hours of wind and solar electricity in 2024, five times more than the energy contained in all 600 of its nuclear weapons." Now, if we could see similar results globally, we would have an easier time at COP30.
In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here are some useful ideas to help you along:
Lin Yutang (1895-1976), a Chinese writer, linguist, and inventor, celebrated for pioneering a humorous prose style in modern Chinese literature, offers a memorable saying: "When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set."
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